and endowed it with many volumes. He also built a school in Baghdad beside Bāb al-Ṭāq, erected the dome over the grave of Abū Ḥanīfa, established ribāṭs along the desert routes, and carried out numerous charitable works. He was among the most refined of people in food and drink, the best dressed, and the wealthiest. Yet after all of that he resigned from public office, devoted himself to worship, and occupied himself with his own spiritual discipline until he died—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

Muhammad ibn Manṣūr al-Qushayrī (1), known as ʿAmīd Khurāsān.
He came to Baghdad in the days of Ṭughrul Beg and narrated hadith from Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Masrūr. Deeply committed to good works, he endowed in Marw a school for Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Muẓaffar al-Samʿānī and his descendants. [Ibn al-Jawzī says]: “They still administer it to this very day.” He also built a school in Nīshāpūr, where he is buried. He died in Shawwāl of this year. (May Allah have mercy upon him.)

Naṣr ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Baṭir (2), Abū al-Khaṭṭāb [al-Khaṭṭābī], the cloth-merchant and Qur’an-reciter.
Born in 398 AH, he heard a vast amount of hadith, being the sole transmitter from Ibn Zirquwayh and others. He lived a long life, people journeyed to him from distant lands, and—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—his transmission was sound.

[Then the year 495 AH began.]
On the third of Muḥarram [of that year] Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, known as al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, was arrested and removed from teaching at the Niẓāmiyya, because someone had accused him before the sultan of holding Bāṭinī doctrines. A group of scholars—among them Ibn ʿAqīl—testified to his innocence, and on Tuesday a letter arrived from the caliphal court ordering his release.

[On Tuesday, the eleventh of Muḥarram] (3) the caliph al-Mustazhir billāh held court in the palace. The two princely brothers Muḥammad and Sanjar, sons of Sultan Malik-Shāh, entered and kissed the ground. The caliph conferred the sultanic robes of honor upon them: to Muḥammad a sword, a necklace, bracelets, a banner, and several steeds from his own stables; to Sanjar somewhat less than that. The caliph invested Sultan Muḥammad with sovereignty and deputized him in all matters pertaining to the Caliphate [save for what the caliph keeps under lock and key]. (4)

Thereafter Sultan Muḥammad departed [on the nineteenth of the month]. Rumor spread that Barkiyāruq was approaching. A provisional settlement was reached, but Sultan Muḥammad mounted, the armies met, many battles were fought, Muḥammad was defeated, and great harm befell him, as will be detailed later.